China Business Invitations: Important Changes

4th January 2011 Effective immediately the Chinese Embassy will not accept the following forms of invitation for business applications: * Invitations on Chinese letterhead from a company in China * Invitations that state at the top: 'Visa Notification of the Ministry of Information Industry People's Republic of China'. This form of invitation can also be recognised by the inclusion of a 4 digit code Only the following 2 forms of invitations will be accepted:

An Invitation letter of Duly Authorized Unit or a Confirmation letter of Invitation. These refer to the letter issued by the Chinese government departments, companies and social organizations authorized by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
TYPE 1: CONFIRMATION LETTER OF INVITATION (consisting of 2 pages) To identify this: * Page 1: 'Confirmation Letter of Invitation' is stated along the top of the invitation and underneath it a long number. At the bottom it states "note 1 and 2" * Page 2: 'Name List of the Invited' is stated along the top of the invitation and a list of names follows. 'Name of Duly Authorized Unit' is stated near the bottom TYPE 2: INVITATION LETTER OF DULY AUTHORISED UNIT (1 page) To identify this: * 'Invitation Letter of Duly Authorized Unit' is stated along the top of the invitation and underneath is the list of names and passport numbers. This Invitation Letter of Duly Authorised Unit looks similar to the old style 'Municipal Level Government' invitation, except that it no longer states 'Visa Notification of the Ministry of Information Industry People's Republic of China' along the top and no longer has a 4 digit code.

Our visa specialists have spoken with the manager of the China Visa Application Service Centre who has confirmed that the inviting person or company in China must go to their local Government Office to ask for these new format invitations on behalf of their applicants. The Centre also confirmed that the 31st December 2010 would be the last date that the old style invitations would be acceptable, without exception.

UK-0610LHMT-2